Rotten Meat film review by UK film critic Patrick Foley. Starring Imani Love, Rick J. Kock directed by Rebekah Strauss. HOME | FILMS | REVIEWS Rotten Meat Film Review average rating is 3 out of 5 Critic: Patrick Foley | Posted on: Sep 15, 2021 Directed by: Rebekah Strauss Written by: Rebekah Strauss Starring: Imani Love, Rick J. Kock Not one to watch on a full stomach, Rotten Meat is a subversive short thriller about consumption, validation, and desperation which is unnervingly unique in presentation but relies a little too much on symbolism to immerse viewers fully. Carmen (Imani Love) reflects on an affair with her boss, plastic surgeon Dr. Adrian Carmichael (Rick J. Koch). Her time spent with the doctor triggered an obsession with self-perfection, which resulted in botched facial surgery - ruining her natural beauty. Carmen plots a reunion with her former lover – but her damaged face mirrors the mental scars he inflicted – and her plan begins to spiral off the rails. Rotten Meat is a short, arthouse-style film which follows a recent trend set by the likes of Raw which use macabre imagery and shocking, consumption-based plots to make powerful statements about modern society. There is a risk, with such a controversial basis, that any statements films like this make will be overshadowed by gory, vomit-inducing horror. But Rotten Meat walks this line carefully, biding its time and slowly building tension throughout before unleashing its hidden gore in a powerful, more meaningful manner. The result is a furious critique of modern beauty culture, obsession and pressure young women face in a society that views them as objects to consume. The contrast between the Carmen that viewers meet in the film’s opening flashback, and the Carmen who has been butchered by surgeons and suffered a mental breakdown is striking. Her vengefulness against Dr. Carmichael is clear to see, and evidently emanates from somewhere deeper than a bad breakup. His dismissiveness towards her when invited over for dinner casts the doctor as an unsympathetic character – and despite Carmen’s horror-villain tendencies, her plan never feels unwarranted – at least until things get really crazy… The plot is straightforward and minimalist, with the film effectively establishing its characters and key moments, whilst trusting in its characterisation enough to allowing audiences to fill in some key gaps in their backstories. There are some moments that fall short however, and feel frustratingly undercooked in important moments. Dr. Carmichael’s choice to stay for dinner in Carmen’s apartment once he figures out there is no emergency feels under-explained, given it is so powerfully evidenced that he cares little for his ex-mistress. When things turn threatening, it is especially strange that he would not leave, and the film could have tried harder to cement a reason for him to stay. Viewers may feel somewhat thrown off by this moment. The film’s production is stylish and artistic, with modernist filming techniques giving the short an inimitable feel. Long shots of direct eye contact with the camera by the cast become surprisingly unnerving, and differentiate the film from the average horror or thriller. The prosthetic effects for the surgery are striking, and add impressive authenticity to a lower-budget film. Rotten Meat is not for everyone, but as an opinionated and provocative piece of art, it accomplishes its goal of making a strong statement about the beautification-consumerism complex. Buy UKFR Banner Space About the Film Critic Patrick Foley Digital / DVD Release, Short Film, Indie Feature Film, LGBTQ+, Film Festival < All Reviews Next Film Review >

HAnnimal Lector film review by UK film critic William Hemingway. Starring Jorge Villacorta directed by Jorge Luis Villacorta Santamato. HOME | FILMS | REVIEWS HAnnimal Lector Film Review average rating is 1 out of 5 Critic: William Hemingway | Posted on: Dec 11, 2022 Directed by: Jorge Luis Villacorta Santamato Written by: Jorge Luis Villacorta Santamato Starring: Jorge Villacorta A man walks into a room. He's wearing a suit and tie and a wool overcoat. He walks over to a stool in the middle of the frame and sits down on it. In front of the stool is a small desk or a plinth covered in a grey, woollen cloth upon which is situated a giant tome of a book – it must be at least a thousand pages long. The man undoes the buttons on his coat and settles himself down. He opens the book and finds a page somewhere near the beginning, probably about fifty or so pages in. He takes a minute to find the best 'thinker' pose that his ego will allow him to present and apparently begins reading. The wall behind him is bare and white and there is a light switch over on the left hand side. There is the noise of passing traffic and the chirping of birds from outside but the man says nothing. The man thinks he's smart. He's not. He just thinks he is. After ten minutes the scene cuts and the stool is empty again. Immediately the man re-enters the frame and sits down to once more begin reading. He doesn't need to open his coat this time – he's already done that. After apparently reading for a short while he nonchalantly flicks back through a few pages until he again settles on a page to go on with. Twenty minutes in and the scene cuts back to an empty stool. The man immediately re-enters the frame, sits down, and apparently begins reading again. After another couple of minutes he casually flips back a few pages and continues. Sometimes he leans on his elbow, sometimes he puts both hands on the plinth and looks like he's ready to deliver a sermon. At distant points a motorcycle and a plane pass by outside. After thirty minutes the scene cuts to an empty stool.... …. and you get the idea. Jorge Villacorta doesn't seem to though, as he drags this utter drudgery out for another twenty minutes, expecting us to marvel at the audacity and cleverness of his turgid little film. At certain points you can distinctly see how pleased Jorge is with himself as wry smirks ripple across his face and he alternately raises what he wrongly believes to be an enigmatic eyebrow or two. After fifty minutes are up Jorge re-enters the frame, from a different angle this time, quickly flicks back another few pages and then promptly leaves. The End. Writer, director, producer, cinematographer, editor, musician, talent co-ordinator, costumier, hair and make-up department head, concept artist, art director, special effects artist, visual effects lead, stunt co-ordinator and stunt performer, location manager and transportation captain, Jorge Luis Villacorta Santamato wants to tell you that his film (and by actually crediting himself with all of these titles it is very much His film) is a crime, fantasy, horror, mystery. It's not. If you're interested you can link from the film's IMDb page to Jorge's own review of his own film where he argues his case in suitably confounding language that it's all about objectivism and abstraction. Well, d'uh! In his own review of his own film Jorge talks about the 'much lesser people' (in relation to capitalist society) while at the same time using words like 'peer', 'blessed' and 'accomplished scholar' to describe himself. He states that calling his film 'a movie about cannibalism is logical' and even proudly calls it an 'extremely perverse Peruvian snuff feature' where perverse is the only word which accurately describes anything which is going on, though probably not in the way Jorge thinks. Jorge would probably say that I don't understand his film, or that I haven't taken the time to properly investigate what he is trying to say – and he would be right – I don't, I haven't. I don't care to. His film is literally just him in a bare room sitting down pretending to read a book for fifty minutes in a static frame. It's junk. I'm all for film being art but this is neither; it's just an extended navel gazing exercise which goes nowhere. I've watched fifty minutes of this stuff so that you don't have to – so please don't – objectively. Buy UKFR Banner Space About the Film Critic William Hemingway Digital / DVD Release, Short Film, World Cinema < All Reviews Next Film Review >

Horrortales.666 Part 3 film review by UK film critic Joe Beck. Starring Joel D. Wynkoop, M. Catherine Wynkoop directed by Derek Braasch, Marcelo Fabani, Phil Herman, James Panetta, Anthony Piseno. HOME | FILMS | REVIEWS Horrortales.666 Part 3 Film Review average rating is 1 out of 5 Critic: Joe Beck | Posted on: Mar 31, 2023 Directed by: Derek Braasch, Marcelo Fabani, Phil Herman, James Panetta, Anthony Piseno Written by: Derek Braasch, Marcelo Fabani, Phil Herman, James Panetta, Anthony Piseno Starring: Joel D. Wynkoop, M. Catherine Wynkoop This is the third film in the ‘Horrortales.666’ series, which began all the way back in 2003, and it doesn’t exactly inspire you to go back to see the past entries. In fact, it does exactly the opposite and makes you question just why a third film has been made - ‘Part 3’ is so bad that it’s inconceivable to think that the first two films are any better. We’re introduced to a man, titled only the burglar (Joel D.Wynkoop), who has appeared in the two previous films. He’s sat in front of a computer reading off some stories, allegedly trapped by a ghost (or gost as he frustratingly repeats) and a witch (M. Catherine Wynkoop). The manic overacting from Wynkoop is bad, but it’s nowhere near as dreadful as everything around him, and by the end we’re thankful for his presence because that offers at least a semblance of entertainment. After ten minutes, and one dreadfully written and performed story in - the horrors aren’t limited to the superman towel draped over the front door or the batman cardboard cutout in the front room - we think the film might be over, and we’re grateful. It is a cruel world. Sadly, there’s another hour and ten minutes to endure, and in that moment we’d much rather face the ghost and the witch. Well, maybe not the witch, who is the most irritating character this critic has seen in eons. She’s worse than Jar-Jar Binks, terribly acted with the most insipid, redundant lines of dialogue, and a voice even more disturbing than nobody’s favourite Gungan. Fortunately we don’t spend much time with her aside from occasional appearances, but that unfortunately means we have to watch a collection of some of the most poor composed short films. They’re poorly written (poorly is being kind), poorly acted, and for the most part make very little sense. Each films plot defies logic at almost every turn, with no character seeming to have any sentient experience or even a brain at all. Moreover, they’re sleazy, with blood and gore free-flowing, without so much as attempting to build any suspense or terror. There is one short film which has a disturbing rape scene complete with rock music and gratuitous nudity - that’s the kind of disgusting levels of sleaze ‘Horrortales.666 Part Three’ reaches, worsened by the fact the woman is characterised as a ‘stupid fool’. Wynkoop’s character continually expresses his desire to leave and for there to be ‘no more’, and that is, perhaps the most apt line of dialogue, and the only one that rings true. This is a gruelling task to watch. At times you wish you were the protagonist, at least that way you wouldn’t have to put up with the reverberated voice of the witch over and over again, or the distorted voice effect which makes the film appear like an eleven year old’s first venture into filmmaking. A mess. A total mess. ‘Horrortales.666 Part 3’ is an inept film in every sense of the word. Dreadful in terms of production, writing, directing, etc., it is the epitome of sleazy, sometimes disgustingly so. With their failure to build terror, not one of the short films gets the pleasure of creating any horror, and so the title can only refer to the experience of watching the film for the viewer, itself a horror tale of continual frustration and rising anger. If there is to be a part four, I expect it to be a video of this critic watching ‘Horrortales.666 Part 3’, perhaps only then will its creators realise what true horror is. Buy UKFR Banner Space About the Film Critic Joe Beck Indie Feature Film < All Reviews Next Film Review >

A New Kind of Life film review by UK film critic Jason Knight. Starring Tim John Lane, Johnny Derek Cole, Diy Mutha, Gary Clail directed by Tim John Lane. HOME | FILMS | REVIEWS A New Kind of Life Film Review average rating is 3 out of 5 Critic: Jason Knight | Posted on: Jul 27, 2023 Directed by: Tim John Lane Written by: Tim John Lane Starring: Tim John Lane, Johnny Derek Cole, Diy Mutha, Gary Clail An experimental and surreal music video with eccentric people, mannequins, musical instruments, dancing and cool songs. There is a sort of narrative in this thirty-minute-long video, although telling a story is probably not what it focuses on. A man (Lane) is looking for aCid DoL ( who is actually the front person for the musical group from London 'The Pink Diamond Revue') and he goes from one interior location to another, questioning men regarding the person's location, one of which is English singer and record producer Gary Clail and all characters appear to be playing themselves. And that is pretty much it regarding the story, which is not a bad thing, as this short relies on other aspects in order to have value, including its soundtrack and cinematography. Filming took place inside a clothing shop and a private residence and there is a pattern regarding the structure of the scenes. The film alternates throughout between Tim asking people (actual people who also use their real names) about aCid DoL, himself playing the guitar and lengthy scenes involving a female mannequin (aCid DoL herself?). During the mannequin scenes, a handheld camera films a mannequin inside a property, the dummy usually wearing sunglasses and a necklace with the peace symbol. As mentioned , the cinematography stands out and that is because it looks rather artistic and diverse. The image repeatedly changes colour throughout the film and there are creative lighting techniques, making the viewing more interesting. Regarding the audio, dialogue is limited and the same phrases and lyrics are repeated. The scenes with the mannequin inside a property with no one around are accompanied by music that sounds mysterious, making the atmosphere surreal. The rest of the film has a variety of tracks that include electronic, rock and rave music and it is quite a listening experience. Going to the characters, most of them wear stylised clothing, Tim is the lead man and when he is not talking to people, he is either sitting down, with a poker face or playing his guitar, along with a drummer and a mannequin. This short is basically a music video with a rich selection of colours and a lot of music. It deserves praise for its creativity and it should probably be best viewed as an experimental piece of work, as an effort to explore the methods of filmmaking. Buy UKFR Banner Space About the Film Critic Jason Knight Short Film, Music Video, Documentary < All Reviews Next Film Review >

Picture Day film review by UK film critic James Learoyd. Starring Oona Yaffe, Michelle Krusiec, Michael Perl directed by Kelly Pike. HOME | FILMS | REVIEWS Picture Day Film Review average rating is 4 out of 5 Critic: James Learoyd | Posted on: Nov 16, 2024 Directed by: Kelly Pike Written by: Kelly Pike Starring: Oona Yaffe, Michelle Krusiec, Michael Perl Picture Day is the powerful new drama from writer-director Kelly Pike, and tells a tale of childhood rebellion and anxieties. “A girl must prepare herself for picture day” is the surprisingly simple premise for the film. And yet, within this conceit, comes potential for some wonderfully reflective, and meditative, storytelling. It’s a rich movie, and outstandingly well-made, filled to the brim with ideas about family and girlhood. Our protagonist Casey, for one, displays a naturalistic portrayal of confusion and resentment which rings true throughout. This is a lived-in story – one which you can tell is told from a place of truth and memory. The first thing you may notice while watching is the movie’s slow pace. This is always wonderful to see, particularly in the context of a drama. When a piece such as this allows the viewer to settle into the environments and the emotions on screen, it becomes a far more rewarding watch than your average short film. What this also displays is impeccable control of tone. This is an amazingly atmospheric and subjective picture, and it puts in the effort to gradually build its world and its ideas, as opposed to simply laying it all out in front of us. So how does the film hold our attention, without a conventionally dense plot? You could argue that the most obvious factor is the cinematography. This is an undeniably beautiful movie. Shot in an anamorphic 35mm-look which really lends itself to a story feeling like a memory – the grain and shallow focus taking on some faded quality. It’s so vibrant and textured that the viewer finds oneself completely overwhelmed by certain shots. For instance, there’s one wide shot which tracks to the left along with Casey on her bicycle – the sunset flaring into the lens and filling the frame with gold. It’s unbelievable work. This is a seemingly simple movie infused with detail. Namely, the character of the father having a military job is something of a background feature, completely implicit; however, when you - as an audience member - begin to think about its implications, you realise that this girl has probably had a challenging life, and perhaps this is a family which is always moving around, never settling. This also lends the piece a touch of realism – a portrait of American life for a young person, feeling alienated at a specific place and time. The family politics are also perfectly realised, with the controversy of the haircut and then ear-piercings being small issues at face-value, but their being used as emotional warfare is well-observed. I adored this film, and audiences I’m sure will be equally engaged by its story and style. It’s destined to do fantastically, and readers should not miss the opportunity to seek it out. The sound design is phenomenal, the editing isn’t heavy-handed and allows the shots to breathe. Impeccable performances across the board, and a core vision which has a lot to say. Picture Day will have you immersed from beginning to end, and will stick in your memory long after you’ve watched it. Buy UKFR Banner Space About the Film Critic James Learoyd Short Film < All Reviews Next Film Review >

Cuddle film review by UK film critic Jason Knight. Starring Arron Blake, Theodore Slyvain, Mark Gatiss directed by Arron Blake. HOME | FILMS | REVIEWS Cuddle Film Review average rating is 3 out of 5 Critic: Jason Knight | Posted on: Aug 28, 2026 Directed by: Arron Blake Written by: Arron Blake Starring: Arron Blake, Theodore Slyvain, Mark Gatiss Arron Blake writes, directs and stars in this short drama, the cast if which includes Theodore Slyvain and Mark Gatiss. To a degree, the plot is reminiscent of the 2013 Oscar-winning feature Her . The setting is Britain and a program, an app, has been developed that enables customers to hire people for a limited time and they hug each other. According to a news report in the film, the intention was to improve the well-being of those who are suffering from loneliness. One person who takes a shot at this is Oliver (Blake), a young homosexual and painter. The screenplay examines how Oliver is influenced by his experiences with having a stranger (stranger's name is Nate and he is played by Theodore Slyvain) in his home with the sole intention of embracing. Initially, he changes his mind and refuses to participate but later ends up embracing (no pun intended) the arrangement and seems to find joy in it, until something happens. The viewing is dramatic and thoughtful and gets quite intimate at times. The dramatic music by Filipe Silva adds to the atmosphere and so does Darius Shu's moody cinematography. Effective use of slow motion takes place in montage sequences. The rapport that develops between Oliver and Nate is a primary aspect. Oliver appears to be struggling to form a relationship, constantly meeting with one man after another, all leading to nothing more than sexual encounters. After meeting Nate, Oliver seems to have found something, or at least the believes he has, until he realises that he was mistaken. He is a lonely man whose main company appears to be his AI home device and he does not seem to know what he longs for. Sylvain's character is an employee, a youngster who listens to Oliver's thoughts, but ultimately, he stays loyal to his job, without commitments. This is a story about connection, about yearning to connect with people, about meeting someone special and about self-reflection and frustration. Through Mark Gatiss's character, the film points out how much people are distracted by technology, with him constantly looking at his phone while Oliver tries to communicate with him. A short drama about connection that is (in certain ways) also a romance. In the end, it is about a man struggling to comprehend what it is that he is looking for. Buy UKFR Banner Space About the Film Critic Jason Knight Short Film, LGBTQ+ < All Reviews Next Film Review >

Katherine's Lullaby film review by UK film critic Alex Crisp. Starring William Kircher, Tori Kostic directed by Savvas Christou. HOME | FILMS | REVIEWS Katherine's Lullaby Film Review average rating is 3 out of 5 Critic: Alex Crisp | Posted on: Oct 25, 2021 Directed by: Savvas Christou Written by: Savvas Christou Starring: William Kircher, Tori Kostic With Tori Kostic as Lily (the victim), William Kircher as Evan (the captor), and Meghan Hanako as Katherine (we’ll get to her), Katherine’s Lullaby —also known as Captive —rushes straight into its stock horror set-up without doing anything to establish its characters. Details come later, but they come playing catch-up. Fleeing an abusive father, an attractive YA runaway is left alone in the woods by her boyfriend (who conveniently for the plot takes her phone with him). She stumbles across a creepy cabin with a creepier male occupant who locks her inside with a minimum of hassle, and voila, you’ve made a horror movie. In the main it’s an uninvolving desert of a genre flick—trite, clichéd and underwritten. It doesn’t scare either, with no jumps, no gore, relying on suspense which a familiar score of sonic rumbles struggles to amplify. Meanwhile, Savvas Christou’s direction can be described no more effusively than competent. It begs the question how something tracking so palpably into mediocrity could warrant any mention at all. The answer was a surprise—there was a bright idea waiting to emerge after all. The hostage-horror archetype comes with ingrained viewer expectations, and because I’d been lulled—unintentionally rather than deliberately—into resignation, the seductive subversion of those expectations was a particular boon. How? Spoilers abundus . Evan, the male captor, is a schizophrenic who has sequestered Lily in the delusional belief that she is actually his estranged daughter Katherine. Lily gradually learns to play to this delusion with the intention of plotting an escape, but somewhere along the way something changes. Evan’s controlling love connects with this victim of patriarchal abuse, and by the time the real Katherine shows up, her deceptively street-wise double has come to the venomous decision to replace her. It should be stressed that the execution of this denouement is not exempt from the flaws that delimit the rest of the production, hamstrung as it is by stagey performances, glaring plot holes, and, in one of its rare moments of violence, clumsy editing. And there’s definitely a more refined film to be made out of its Body Snatched- into-Body Snatcher narrative. However, as per the peak-end rule, a film that starts badly and ends well has the upper hand in any evaluation of its merits. Buy UKFR Banner Space About the Film Critic Alex Crisp Indie Feature Film < All Reviews Next Film Review >

Girls Night Out film review by UK film critic William Hemingway. Starring Rebecca Tierney, Maria Lynas, Ross Crawford directed by Linda Scott. HOME | FILMS | REVIEWS Girls Night Out Film Review average rating is 3 out of 5 Critic: William Hemingway | Posted on: Mar 13, 2022 Directed by: Linda Scott Written by: Linda Scott Starring: Rebecca Tierney, Maria Lynas, Ross Crawford A quick IMDb search throws up no less than twenty-five features, shorts and series trading under the name of Girls Night Out . They date from 1982 all the way up to the present day and mostly fit into the Bridesmaids (2011) category of shock, gross-out comedy but also sometimes with a bit of edgy thriller thrown in for good measure. The girls are obviously out for a good time, be that at a bachelorette party, celebrating a divorce, or somehow or other recapturing their youth – but things don't often go to plan. There's usually a guy involved – a hot one – more often than not a stripper, and he takes a tumble or a hit on the head or a heart attack and suddenly there's blood on the girls' hands. Cue conflict and haphazard resolution and repeat ad nauseam. Thankfully writer/director Linda Scott has managed to avoid the main pitfalls of another night out gone wrong story in her own short film in the Girls Night Out pantheon. Sidestepping the worn out conventions of the other movies she instead focuses her themes and characters to keep her film more in the vein of Animals (2018) or more directly Our Ladies (2019). Here we follow Scots teenagers Ange (Rebecca Tierney) and Becca (Maria Lynas) as they pull the oldest trick in the book on Ange's mum and head into Glasgow for a night out on the town. Despite not having a plan their spirits are high and the girls are ready to see what the night brings. After their initial giddy excitement and the following total washout the inevitable predatory male figure then rears his ugly head and now the girls have to deal with what it really means to be a young female trying to have a good time on a night out in the city. Scott has said that she wanted to address the problem of hyper-sexualising young women as well as highlighting their struggle to express their desires in a world that tries to limit their freedom. The characters of Ange and Becca help her to do this nicely, as do both actresses who naturally inhabit and breathe life into the two teenage girls. Their dialogue is rhythmic and colloquial, helping to keep the feel of realism and the idea that these could be any two girls in any town around the country, and the obvious hierarchy in their relationship helps add the frisson of excitement and danger that Scott is looking for. Everything in the film, from the lighting to the locations, is stripped back to keep things as real as possible, and as the girls move from the fun part to the dangerous part of the night this really starts to take effect. Ross Crawford is suitably seedy as 'the Artist' who preys on the girls, but realistically any guy could have been placed into that role with the same effect. Only in Glasgow could two young girls get away from a potentially life-threatening situation with a shout of 'You're a fanny', but otherwise it's the universality of the story that will keep the audience engaged. Unless they've seen Our Ladies . And this is where Scott's film loses out somewhat. The idea and execution is all very well, and even has flashes of real artistic sensibility, but when it retreads the exact same ground as a full length feature which has already told the story bigger and better and most importantly beforehand, then it doesn't hold as much muster as it could have. There's plenty to unpick and enjoy in Scott's film but ultimately it only serves as an hors d'oeuvre or an amuse-bouche to give a taste of the themes and ideas it lays out. If you want a full-fat feature that you can sink your teeth into to get a real flavour of the themes involved, Our Ladies might well be the better option. Buy UKFR Banner Space About the Film Critic William Hemingway Short Film < All Reviews Next Film Review >

Subscribed film review by UK film critic Swati Verma. Starring Diana Porter, Michelle Falanga, Kevin O Peterson directed by Diana Porter. HOME | FILMS | REVIEWS Subscribed Film Review average rating is 3 out of 5 Critic: Swati Verma | Posted on: Feb 9, 2023 Directed by: Diana Porter Written by: Mikel J Wiser Starring: Diana Porter, Michelle Falanga, Kevin O Peterson The director Diana Porter and writer Mikel J Wisler build an intriguing script to showcase the relationship between Technology and humans furthermore highlighting the after- effects of the same with the help of the female protagonist Carol (Diana Porter). The plot of the short film Subscribed revolves around Carol who lives alone with her friendly AI assistant Vicki whose sophisticated data gathering anticipates her every need and desire. But who is in control? The film opens with a long shot of the fired-up planet as the voiceover starts in the background along with the advertisement. This is a smart method to entice the audience thus increasing the degree of engagement with the content from the very beginning. The drama, suspense, and mystery are the three elements brilliantly utilised to elevate the genre of science fiction making the viewers not lose interest. The set design, colour palette, dialogues, costume, hair, and makeup has been kept natural to complement the subject matter it caters to. The one-room dramatic piece has a well-constructed conversation between Carol, Vicki, and Luke as well as the subplot provides the necessary detailing allowing the audience a fresh perspective hence giving them a chance to interpret it as per their understanding of the movie. In terms of performance, Diana Porter plays Carol who lives all alone with her only friend AI Vicki away from her husband in search of the right work-life balance. Porter elegantly portrays the range of emotions utilising body language, voice modulations, and facial expressions to uplift the storyline also adding realism so that subscribed becomes emotionally appealing as well as relatable in the eyes of the audience. Michelle Falanga as AI Vicki lends her beautiful voice to give life to the vision of the director Diana Porter. Falanga understands the nuances of the character given to her and also keeps in mind the demand of screenplay as the technology needs to be multidimensional to meet every human requirement. Kevin O Peterson plays the role of Luke better half of Carol who appreciates technology but knows what limit should be taken into consideration while using it. Peterson features for a short time but the key messages communicated by Luke in the story tend to stay with the audience even after watching the film. Subscribed talks about the harmful effects of being over- dependent on technology just like addiction. It also reiterates the importance of human interaction so that one feels a certain sense of normalcy in the continuous race of life upgradation. The science fiction film stands true to the life mantra of change is the only constant but it should also have the traditional ways to ensure the mental and physical wellbeing of people which is of utmost significance, especially in the post-pandemic world. The cinematic piece restates that syncing the life pattern with artificial intelligence may seem very comfortable initially but humans like the imperfections and moods to beat their monotonous routine. The creative piece also talks about the need for emotional support and not only technical from the AI. Buy UKFR Banner Space About the Film Critic Swati Verma Short Film < All Reviews Next Film Review >

Everything I Hate About You film review by UK film critic Matt Trapp. Starring Noanne, Johanna Thoss directed by Steen Agro . HOME | FILMS | REVIEWS Everything I Hate About You Film Review average rating is 3 out of 5 Critic: Matt Trapp | Posted on: Mar 24, 2026 Directed by: Steen Agro Written by: Steen Agro Starring: Noanne, Johanna Thoss A dingy motel room is transformed into a bloody murder scene in the music video for NOANNE’s Everything I Hate About You , an energetic ode to complicated situationships. While the video is well shot and matches the charmingly macabre vibe of the song, it’s hard to deny that the concept could have been pushed further to become truly memorable. Everything I Hate About You opens with the main character of the video and singer NOANNE sitting in a motel chair, holding a pistol with silencer attached, the walls coated in blood stains. The video cuts between the singer and a motel cleaner, slowly making his way through each room, where particular attention is given to each room number climbing higher and higher. It’s a fun Hitchcock-esque interplay between the two characters; she’s revelling in the afterglow of violence, meanwhile a humble cleaner gets closer to discovering what she’s done. Unfortunately, the rich potential for drama is undercut by a number of factors. While director Steen Agro has chosen to focus on the room numbers, the audience is crucially unaware of which room NOANNE’s crime has taken place in. The ticking clock is thereby rendered useless; how can the audience know exactly how close the cleaner is to NOANNE’s bloody motel room without a frame of reference? Without knowing the room number that the music video largely takes place in, there’s no effect in seeing the room numbers going higher and higher. The destination may as well be the moon. A more glaring disappointment is the lack of a payoff or resolution to the cleaner entering the bloodied room. This is the moment the video has been building up to, and it fails to deliver any kind of shocking, comedic, or dramatic punchline. Perhaps the cleaner could have looked at the bloody scene and reacted nonchalantly, shrugged and continued with their job, suggesting that this kind of violence is less out of the ordinary than the audience expects. Alternatively, NOANNE’s character could have been caught unawares, her singing and dancing interrupted while the camera lingered on the cleaner’s bewildered reaction, the door closing slowly in a comedic beat. These suggestions are hardly the most interesting or inspired ideas, but they represent what I consider the film’s largest misstep. What should have been the climax of the video’s narrative falls entirely flat, which is a shame considering this is where the director could have been at their most expressive. The song has a pounding energy, and the video represents this intensity well for the most part. Agro keeps the camera moving constantly, never pausing to rest. NOANNE’s performance is mostly delivered to the camera, and she does well to personify the raw emotion of the song. Aiding the camp grotesque tone of the song is the playfully morbid set design; bloody handprints and machetes dripping with gore sell the idea of NOANNE’s murderous infatuation with the song’s subject. And yet, the horror imagery could have been pushed further. The video starts at 100 and sadly stays there, failing to build upon the admittedly strong visuals that it opens with. The full extent of blood and gore could have been built up slower, or perhaps there could have been more viscera for NOANNE to use for props. Of course there’s always the possibility that this would have made the video less palatable to some audiences. Playing it safer however results in a video that doesn’t build to much beyond what the audience see in the first 30 seconds. NOANNE has stated that the song ‘delves into the complexities of love, hatred, and the blurred lines between the two’ . I can understand where hatred is represented in the video, but I fail to see how love is represented anywhere. It feels less like the soap-opera dark comedy of Death Becomes Her and more like Gus Van Sant’s Psycho , lacking either the lurid sex appeal or gritty violence that the song sounds like it’s aiming for. Maybe it would have been fun to see NOANNE caress the dismembered leg of her ex-lover, or to see her use bloody intestines for a feather boa. The video has more than enough room for more creative uses of the premise, and it’s a shame that the final result was as straightforward and clinical as it was. While there are some missed opportunities in my mind for Everything I Hate About You , the music video largely does its job in accompanying the song acceptably. Does it play it too safe? Absolutely. The narrative of the video could have been far more memorable, and overall it risks portraying NOANNE as bland, without much of a voice of her own. Still, the video is watchable, it looks good, and, perhaps in contrary to the filmmaker’s assertion, is largely inoffensive. Buy UKFR Banner Space About the Film Critic Matt Trapp Music Video < All Reviews Next Film Review >

Rindido film review by UK film critic Alasdair MacRae. Starring Noriel M. Jarito, Chanel Latorre, Vic Tiro directed by Noriel M. Jarito. HOME | FILMS | REVIEWS Rindido Film Review average rating is 2 out of 5 Critic: Alasdair MacRae | Posted on: Jul 31, 2023 Directed by: Noriel M. Jarito Written by: Noriel M. Jarito Starring: Noriel M. Jarito, Chanel Latorre, Vic Tiro An Overseas Filipino Worker or OFW is forced to return home to the Philippines only to find that his long-term partner has been unfaithful in his absence. Rindido (Deranged ) opens with a statement from writer-director-star Noriel M. Jarito outlining his concerns with the mass migration of Filipino people, who are forced to leave the country to work abroad in order to provide for their families, and the intense isolation and subsequent societal issues that come with such a burden. After a baffling prologue, we see the protagonist Efren (Noriel M. Jarito) return to the Philippines, as he wanders the streets the handheld, fast-cutting style captures snippets of his surroundings. He seems out of time with the world around him, unable to keep up. He feels alien, at odds with the place that was once his home. A dynamic way of depicting the character’s difficulties on returning home. However, once he makes it back to his apartment and his partner, Rindido becomes frustratingly one-dimensional. The partner in question (Chanel Latorre), is given a limited role. She is introduced as a sex object, ogled by the men in the neighbourhood as she walks by in a figure-hugging dress. From there she flirts with one of them which is duly interrupted by the arrival of Efren who chases the love rival off. After she performs sex with Efren, they begin to discuss her betrayal. All is not as it seems as she begs for his forgiveness, but he envisages her seducing another man by performing sexually suggestive actions with a banana which causes him to launch into a murderous rage. The encounter ultimately lacks complexity, even though the misogyny appears evident, below the surface is nothing but more misogyny. There is no exploration of loneliness, long-distance relationships, possessiveness, masculinity, mental health, or any other obvious themes that could have been addressed let alone anything abstract. What follows is an outpouring of male rage as Efren seeks out and violently attacks those who had slept with his partner to avenge his lost honour, or something to that effect. The remaining run time consists of hammy fight scenes made dramatically worse by unnecessary post-production sound effects and poor audio mixing. And when the film comes to a close there appears to be nothing left of the sympathetic thread that was started concerning the real-life struggles of OFWs. Rindido is so absorbed with being a second-rate revenge thriller that it stomps all over any interesting dialogue that could have been had concerning OFWs. It is unclear as to why Jarito leads with a statement about the issue if it is going to be passed over so readily for what is just another tale about a so-called ‘crime of passion’. Buy UKFR Banner Space About the Film Critic Alasdair MacRae Indie Feature Film < All Reviews Next Film Review >

Riot in the Meadow film review by UK film critic Corey Bulloch. Starring Vicky Hawkins, Roberta Taylor directed by Thomas Harman . HOME | FILMS | REVIEWS Riot in the Meadow Film Review average rating is 3 out of 5 Critic: Corey Bulloch | Posted on: Mar 9, 2022 Directed by: Thomas Harman Written by: None Starring: Vicky Hawkins, Roberta Taylor “I wanted to make beautiful things” Creating art is a transformative process, not just in the physical sense where a blank canvas can become a tableau of wonder but also a transformation of the self. As the subject of the film artist Vicky Hawkins states “I wanted to turn my grief into joy” but Riot in the Meadow , named after Hawkins’ 2017 showcase of a hundred collages only offers brief glimpses into the life and process of the artist. Director Thomas Harman puts forth a fine example of a short portrait documentary with some insights into Hawkins’ life, inspirations and techniques with interviews from herself, friends and fellow artists. Even though the honesty and sincerity of the film allow for an enjoyable watch, the surface level presentation leaves the audience wanting. Harman’s direction follows conventional documentary techniques of talking-head interviews edited alongside b-roll footage of the subject. The film’s opening narration as read by actress Roberta Taylor finishes with the line “this was the beginning of my lifelong interest with colour”, a sentiment not expressed by the filmmaking of Riot in the Meadow . From what the audience can see and is told of Hawkins’ art, it is all about colours and patterns, vibrant and subtle alike and crafted through different mediums and techniques. Not just paint and canvas but through fabrics as well, the examples from the Riot in the Meadow showcase display eye-catching compositions of colours and shapes. Whereas Riot in the Meadow the film has the audience in drab grey studios, seeing very little of the creative process. Perhaps an intentional decision on Harman’s part, creating a visual juxtaposition between Hawkins’ reality and Hawkins’ artistry. Though it is frustrating that the film only offers a brief impression of Hawkins’ creative process, with a hundred pieces on display at the end of the film, Harman only shows them being packed away. The interviews Harman gets from Hawkins, Taylor, and others are insightful and do allow a “portrait” to be crafted within the film but for a film about a colourful creative artist, the film lacks the visuals to enforce that image. Riot in the Meadow allows an audience member like myself who knew nothing about Vicky Hawkins to leave the film feeling a connection to her. Either through specific commonalities, or that universal desire to overcome grief, Hawkins’ outlook as an artist is an inspiring one. A deeper look into how she created her art would have been welcome but Harman and Hawkins’ do make the film accessible enough with the time they have. Buy UKFR Banner Space About the Film Critic Corey Bulloch Documentary < All Reviews Next Film Review >